Adventure Time: The Complete Third Season on Blu-ray! [Review]

We here on Geekadelphia love Adventure Time and Season 3 hits DVD and Blu-ray today. The fine folks at Cartoon Network were nice enough to send a copy of the Blu-Ray to review. The set features all 26 episodes from the third season in a die-cut slipcase that mimics one of my favorite characters on the show, BMO. Inside the case it even has arms and legs for you to cut out and attach if you’re so inclined.

Since season 3 originally premiered in 2011, these sets are sadly running a bit behind. But Cartoon Network definitely packed in more extras this time around to make this set worth the wait for fans.

The Series:

Adventure Time is the story of Fin the human and his best friend Jake the magic dog that live together in a treehouse in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo. Fin is a chaotic but good 14-year-old who was raised by Jake’s parents and has a penchant for swords, singing in auto-tune, video-games, and adventuring. Jake’s magic ability is he can shape-shift in almost any object.

Season 3 was the season where Adventure Time went from cult status to the full-on phenomenon it is today. I think it’s probably because Season 3 is where the folks behind the show really got their foothold and finally figured out the direction and tone that seemed a bit uneven up until this point. This season also had some amazing benchmark episodes as well: Fionna and Cake, Hitman, Holly Jolly Secrets 1+2 and Pendleton Ward’s amazing love letter to MiyazakiThank You.

This was definitely their strongest season up to this point and binge watching it you definitely get the feeling that the show definitely has a more defined direction.

Presentation:

This is my first time checking the show out on Blu-ray and, while I’ve watched the show on Cartoon Network HD for years, I have NEVER seen the show look THIS good. There is almost no compression on the image at all and this is indeed a beautiful thing. Even in the opening sequence, when you have a million things going on at the same time on screen, you can see every black line crisp as if you were looking at a drawing.

The color was vibrant and the picture quality on the entire set is phenomenal, I only wish all animation looked this good when ported to Blu-ray.

Supplements:

There is an alternate opening done completely in Lego, which seems super timely, and commentaries with various cast and crew on EVERY EPISODE. The commentaries here are less formal and often times seem like a bunch of friends chatting about life and this little show they create, which is a real treat to hear. It does however sound like they are doing the entire commentary all in one run as they watch the entire season. So if you’re binge watching it at the same time, that adds a whole new strange dynamic to the experience. Trust me on this one.

The disc also has How an Idea Becomes Adventure Time, a round table with Pendleton Ward, the creator of the show, Kent Osborne, the Head of Story, and Adam Muto, the Supervising Producer. Here they briefly discuss the story process on Adventure Time and some of their thoughts on what makes a good story. While you can tell these guys are more comfortable behind the camera, this is still a great little bit for die-hard fans of the show and gives some insight into the personalities at work behind the scenes.

Final Thoughts:

It’s great to finally be able to own Adventure Time: The Complete Third Season, and it has honestly never looked better. Cartoon Network has put together a package that has enough for the casual viewer and the hard-core fans to satisfy both. So if you’re a fan of the show and plan on picking this up definitely pony up the extra cash for the Blu-ray, you wont regret it. I will definitely be picking up the two previous seasons on Blu-ray after checking this set out.